An upcoming festival will showcase art, poetry and short films by youth from Gaza to shed light on their existence under occupation
Untitled by 24-year-old Ziyad Dahalan
Lama Shakshak, 16, was rescued from the rubble that was once her home in Gaza. This was during the 51-day Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2014. The invasion claimed 2,205 lives including 520 children, displacing thousands of families. Shakshak survived and took to art, painting and writing, to deal with her trauma. Similarly, Mahmud Al Khurd, 22, took to expressing himself through photography after the 2008/09 invasion. In 2014, he taught himself digital art. His paintings feature his sister, whom he lost in the invasion, as the protagonist.
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Untitled by 15-year-old Malak Mattar
This week, the stories and artwork of these youngsters will be part of the Gaza 51 festival. The project is a collection of artwork, poetry, films and music. These were produced by young Palestinians (between the ages of 15 and 25) from Gaza, post the 2014 invasion. “A lot of young people in Gaza are using art, be it film, music, local traditional dance, painting or photography, to heal and deal with personal tragedies. Art has given them the space to express themselves and share their stories,” says Mahnoor Yar Khan, drama therapist and curator of the festival.
Untitled Vision by 22-year-old Mahmoud Al Kurd
The festival will feature 20 charcoal sketches, 29 paintings and 35 photographs, discussions, poetry readings, film screenings and workshops. “The exhibition is intended to inform the Indian public of what it means to young people to live under occupation, siege and uncertainty of life day in and day out, year in and year out,” says Khan.
Childhood by 16-year-old Lama Shakshak
Inspire, impact
In Mumbai, the festival will be held in two parts, at the Cuckoo Club and at the School of Environment and Architecture (SEA) in Borivali. “I believe that art has some sort of impact — it either starts a discussion or provides inspiration to other artists,” says Laila Vaziralli, founder of Junta and one of the event organisers in Mumbai.
The two-day showcase at The Cuckoo Club will feature a spoken word session where poets will read out poetry written by Palestinian youngsters, a panel discussion on youth and conflict with Samyak Chakrabarty of the Green Batti mentoring project, Khan and Deepak Ramola of Project FUEL, which collects life lessons from people and turns them into interactive performances. The short films to be screened include Arna’s children, Soup Over Bethlehem, Ave Maria and special shorts made by students in Gaza. Ramola will also host a session on Project Fuel.
Mahnoor Yar Khan
At SEA, there will be a three-day workshop, Art in the Space of conflict, which will touch upon capturing conflict on film (convened by Ajay Noronha), in theatre (by Khan), and art (convened by Ajay Naik). Khan intends to use texts like 7 Jewish Children or Gaza Monologues to explain to the students the meaning of conflict and enact plays inspired by Gaza.
Look outside
Gaza 51 has travelled to Hyderabad, Delhi, and Chennai; the plan is to tour major metros and visit their art galleries, cultural spaces, universities and schools.
Khan had two reasons behind bringing the project to India. “We Indians are quite silent about what’s happening in another part of the world. India and Israel have strong ties; a narrative that is justified as the fight against terror.
Secondly, there’s a lot happening in our own country that we are silent about. I want this festival to spark a conversation or discussion within young people to look at their own country and decide whether they want to take action,” she says.
The entire festival is self-funded with most of the artists and volunteers working for free. There will also be a sale of the art prints and books of short stories, brochures of charcoal sketches and illustrated war stories.
On: October 20, 22
At: The Cuckoo Club, Bandra (W); October 24 to 27, SEA, Borivali (W)
Email: laila@kitschmandi.com
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